espo

The engine should become a little taller with the heads and intake manifolds installed.

A thought on your wanting to chrome the lid on the air cleaner. I have tried two different approaches, and both worked for me anyway. The first is to use bare metal foil for the top of the lid as the OEM air cleaners were painted black with just the lid chromed on the closed air cleaners. The second, and now my favored method is to use a Gundam Marker pen. These seem to be easier to control than the Alclad pens.

First off congratulations on finding this model. This may very well be a Promo, and I'll share why I think this based on things you mentioned. You mention that there are no provisions in the body to mount any of the kit's accessories. Looking at the picture of the frame you will notice that they have AMT listed as the manufacturer. I'm old enough to have purchased one of the AMT kits when they were issued in 1958. At the time AMT would bring out the new models in the fall. Snow flying outside and they bring the model of a convertible to market followed in the spring with a hard top version, seems reversed to my young mind at the time. The chassis in the kit version at least included small blocks for mounting the axels in either the stock location or a lowered stance. I don't know if this was present on a Promo, but I don't think that they would. The mounting of the chassis to the body was done in several different fashions at the time. The heat sealing of the four mounting points was what was most often seen on promos of the time. The kits I built offered either a metal screw or even a screw that the head was designed to only be installed and the slot wouldn't allow a screwdriver to reverse the screw or remove it once installed. This may have been used on promos as well. Either way it looks like you have a great basises for a '50's cruiser build.

I'm fairly new at using printed body parts myself. One thing I would suggest is a lot of sanding as part of the body prep. What I have found is that often there will be very fine lines on a flat or curved printed body part. These will not always show up under a light coat of gray primer. My thought is that a flat paint finish does not show these lines the way a gloss finish does. After a first or even a second coat of the gloss color they start to show when looking at the part at an angle. My suggestion would be to first sand the part going to even a finer level than normally done before premiering. Next apply a coat of whatever gloss finish you are going to use or even a light coat of gloss clear just enough to get a shiny surface if you're going to do a multi laired candy or pearl color. Then a light sanding with a 2000 or higher sanding cloth should reveal any under lying lines still on the part. I also think that starting with a higher fill type primer may help fill these very fine lines to begin with.

I like the idea of saving the spoons for future reference.

This will put a smile on your face. Great looking finishes and like the theme.

Beautiful looking paint color and finish. Clean trim. I agree with you about this being unable to hold a candle to the Revell '62 Corvette but remember the time frame of this designed in '62 and the Revelle kit design that is far more resent. This still builds into a great looking kit if the time is devoted to it.

I'll be looking at this build. Always pick up some new ideas on how to do things watching your builds.

Great looking paint color and finish. The trim looks cleanly done. Notice what looks like a full-length side window? The bonus figurine could be used in other displays as well.

Your attention to the smallest detail for accuracy really shows. All of the finishes look just like the real car.

Like how you are fitting the chrome grill and bumpers. That should add a great deal to the overall appearance of your build.

Sleek looking body.

Like the showroom style finishes and trim. These were and still are one of the better-looking birds.

The colors and the finish look great. Remember seeing a lot of these in this color combination, very popular at the time. Clean looking body trim along with the wheels and tires.

Great looking color combination with the interior. The 8 lug wheels are nicely detailed. Like this kit and agree with you, it does take some finessing here and there in assembly.

Great looking paint color and finish with lots of metallic in it. Like the OEM look with the white walls and painted hub caps.

Great looking paint work.

Beautiful looking paint finish and color. About the smoothest looking old Plymouth body, I can remember seeing. Nice looking chopped top and the wheels and tires look perfect. Like the stance.

This may be a pipe dream, but I think one or more of the model companies could offer body styles from the mid '50's thru the '70's of some of the upscale GM line like Pont., Olds, Buick, Ford's Mercury and MoPar's, Dodge and Plymouths.

Empi used to run "I/Gas" class and would carry the front wheels past the starting tree. Just looked on Google and they have a lot of current clips of their race cars and others. Seems the Bug popularity is as big or maybe even bigger than in the '60's both here and Europe where Empi even sponsors events.

You might Google "Empi Inch Pincher" and see what you can find. Empi was, and may still be, a major company involved with just about anything that has to do with Volkswagen. They were based out of riverside California in the 1960's and beyond. The "Inch Pincher" was the name of their Type 1 VW that they drag raced. This should offer some references to building a car with a VW engine.

Wonder what the RPM was when the driver popped the clutch?

I still enjoy watching even their reruns on TV. The show has a great energy with no wrench throwing or drama like so many others. They both look like they're very happy and loving people. I like how they show what all they are doing in their builds and they're not full of themselves.

Great looking body work and paint finish. Remember a local Cadillac dealer that had one sit on the lot for over a year and couldn't sell it back then. I'm sure in some markets people would grab this in a heartbeat.

Great looking '32. Like the subdued looking colors and the well detailed body lines.